Rushmore Casino Blog

In poker games sometimes there comes a situation where the pocket cards are all suited and they are likely to form a straight hand in the flop round. These cards are called the suited connectors and the ace and 3 of spades, queen and jack of hearts, 5 and 9 of diamonds – all belong to this category since they can possibly form a flush or a straight hand. It is to be noted that juts suited cards cannot be called suited connectors and so, although an ace and 7 are suited, it is not an example of suited connector as they cannot form a straight hand during flop. When suited connector cards are consecutive, say queen and jack of hearts, they are called no gap suited connectors. When there is one or to or three card gap, they are respectively called one gap, two gap and three gap suited connectors. Examples would be ace and 3, 3 and 6, 5 and 9 respectively.

However, there are some poker players who do not consider one gap, two gap or three gap suited connectors as valid example of suited connector cards and only those cards which are suited and consecutive are taken to be such cards. Therefore, only such cards like the queen and jack, that is the no gap cards, are suited connectors according to these players.

In a game of Texas hold ‘em, the flop round consists of three up cards dealt to the board which makes hands holding suited connectors very much advantageous. A player resists raising as his chosen betting action as it can induce other players to fold thereby diminishing pot odds. However, if someone has a suited connector of ace and king, apart from a straight or flush draw in the flop, it also allows for a chance of pair which may encourage the player holding them to raise. In this case the pot odds are not much affected by the betting action.